Welcome
by Az The Dragon
Summary: It took Doctor Cossack months to program Forte, and now, finally, it was time to see him open his eyes.


**A/N: **The title is kind of weird. I wanted something like "Congratulations, it's a boy!" or "Welcome to the world", but in the end I opted for something shorter and not out of the fic itself.

Anyway, this is my end of the trade with Hanaby over at DA

She asked for me to write... *checks note* my vision on how things went when Forte was first activated. Well, this is the end result.

Considering this is my view of how things went, it is related to Unwilling Partners. Yes, I know that the first sentence over there, the one in italic, comes from the manga, but the rest comes from my head, which means that Forte and Netto are of the same age, more or less. Forte is around 5 or 6 months older, though. *goes on ranting*

Uh, forget what I said. Or maybe not. I'm not entirely here with my mind right now.

Anyway, disclaimers, disclaimers...

Rockman and related stuff/characters (c) Capcom.

Writing and ideas done by yours truly, Az The Dragon

Please, don't steal my work, or my writing skills.

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Welcome

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"_Forte, you are, in essence, the world's first netnavi capable of wholly independent function… a true artificial intelligence that will open the way to the impeding network culture!"_

It was with those words that Forte opened his eyes for the first time. Experts would argue on that idea, saying that his visual recording program had activated, only giving the impression of the opening eyes motion. He knew that, knew that he was an artificial intelligence with the shape of a human kid that lived in a cyberworld, but to him, those were details not worthy of attention.

He was as much alive as any flesh being was and he was both elated and curious about seeing the world that surrounded him.

Red eyes looked up at the screen floating a few feet in front of him and watched the man in it smile widely. "You are," Forte paused for a second to recall the information needed from his memory. "Doctor Cossack. You're my creator."

If it would have been possible, the doctor's smile would have widened. "Yes," he replied, voice bright with happiness. Before he could say more, however, a younger many with glasses approached him and stared at the monitor intently.

"Well, after months of working on him," the new arrival stated with a small smile on his lips and his eyes twinkling with understanding. "Here he is, congratulations, it's a boy!"

There was a short pause before the two men burst out into loud laughs, confusing Forte to no end. The navi knew he had been modeled after after a human boy, but he wasn't sure why that statement would bring so much hilarity into two grown adults.

Eventually, the two stopped laughing and turned their attention back to him. "Sorry," the younger of the two men said, wiping a tear away from his left eye. "You look pretty confused, so let me explain it to you. By the way, I'm Doctor Cossack's assistant, Yuichiro Hikari."

Forte nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Good day to you, Doctor Hikari," he replied, still waiting to hear the explanation to such strange behavior.

Yuichiro smiled at that, then cleared his throat. "You see, when a child is born, someone, usually one of the staff members assisting the mother, congratulates with the father by saying that the child is a boy or a girl. Even if the parents already know the gender," he took a pause to look at the older man next to him and gave a small chuckle. "You see, I'm very close to being a dad myself, and during the months that Doctor Cossack was working on you, well, I often joked with him that he was going to be one too really soon."

When Yuichiro was done explaining, Cossack gave a short laugh of amusement. "At first it was really embarrassing, I admit it," he continued. "But after a while I started to enjoy being considered a father. Forte," here the man turned serious, but his eyes were still filled with happiness. "You might not be a human, and you might have come to life in a different way, but I still consider you my son."

Forte was taken back by those words, and it made him feel strange. In a good way. He felt like he could jump to the moon, run around it a few times, come back down to earth and still have the energy to run a few laps around the large planet. He was so enthralled by this feeling that he barely noticed Doctor Hikari slipping away unnoticed to leave him and his creator some privacy.

Then something happened.

Forte only had a reference of it, which the only purpose was to be used to recognize it on human's faces, but the good feeling instilled in him the strong impulse of pulling his lips to copy the reference in his memory. Looking up at the man that had brought him to life, the navi noticed that the gesture was instantly returned and that made him feel even better, knowing that he had learned something that hadn't been programmed into him.

If it had been possible, Cossack would have placed a hand onto Forte's shoulder. Instead, the only thing he could do was to spread his arms wide to indicate everything that was surrounding him and smile even more.

"Welcome into the world, Forte."


End file.
